INI component reads and writes Windows style INI files. It provides a comprehensive set of functions making INI files a powerful way to store application settings. There are three common ways to store program information on the hard disk: in the Windows registry, in INI files or in XML files. Using XML files is the preferred way to store initialization data in .NET (the registry is getting cluttered which makes it slow and INI files are much less flexible than XML files). However, if you're porting applications from older platforms to .NET, or if your data initialization file structure must be compatible with some other program, sometimes you're forced to use INI files. The Pivo INI component is a fully featured, easy to use implementation and it is written in 100% managed C# code.